Children India Project #19906

Safe care and adoption for 80 Indian Babies

by Snehalaya 'Home of Love'

Summary

It is heartbreaking to even contemplate a newborn child could be abandoned into life threatening danger by the side of the road. We have to accepted this reality and move past the horror. We strive to end the social stigma and fear that leads to the this impossible circumstance. With Childline our 30 bed government accredited adoption centre works to give emergency response and intensive care. We deliver swift emergency response and intensive care and have re-homed 600+ infants since 2004.

$35,000
total goal

$8,327
remaining

181
donors

2
monthly donors

9
fundraisers

4
years

Challenge

It is often considered socially unexceptable for rural girls to mother children out of wedlock. A pregnancy by rape or through a sex worker operating without condoms is shunned and either terminated or hidden to avoid the being cast out of the family. This means after birth the baby is offered for adoption or simply abandoned in desperation. Without a way address the problem and seek support pregnancies that go full term can mean devastating concequenses for the mother and the infant.

Solution

Anyone can use CHILDLINE to report a case of abandonment or an at risk infant or child. We respond at emergency level and intervene to bring the infant to safety. Once the child is stable if we cannot bring about a reconciliation with the biological family we begin the process of adoption that government accredited and ensures we stay in contact to support the integration into the new family. We also run awareness programmes to get the subject addressed by society to try to remove the stigma

Long-Term Impact

With our round the clock team of emergency medics and nurses we can keep our infants alive and safe. We also run awareness programmes in schools and host events to ask the community to consider the issue and seek to develop a wider understanding of how everyone can play a part in the solution. We have a zero mortality rate for the mothers we care for and we are working to increase the survival rate of abandoned infants through having a second intensive care unit.